506 CYC 
by two tame lions; Atys follows by her fide, carrying a 
ball in his hand, and fupporting himfelf upon a fir-tree, 
which is facred to the goddefs. Sometimes Cybele is re- 
prefented with a fceptre in her hand, with her head co¬ 
vered with a tower. She is alfo feen with many breads, 
to fiiew that the earth gives aliments to all living crea¬ 
tures; and the generally carries two lions under her 
arms. From Phrygia the worfhip of Cybele pad'cd into 
Greece, and was lolemnly eftablilhed at Eleufis, under 
the name of the Eleufinian myfteries of Ceres. The 
Romans, by order of the Sibylline books, brought the 
ftatue of the goddefs from Peffinus into Italy ; and when 
the Ihip which carried it had run on a fiiallow bank of 
the Tiber, the virtue and innocence of Claudia were 
vindicated in removing it with her girdle. It is fup- 
pofed that the myfteries of Cybele were firft known 
about 1580 years before Chrift. The Romans were par¬ 
ticularly (uperftitious in walking every year, on the 6th 
of the calends of April, the flirine of this goddefs, in 
the waters of the fiver Almon. There prevailed many 
obfcenities in the obfervation of the feftivals, and the 
priefts themfelves were the 1110ft eager to ufe indecent 
cxpreflions, and to ftiew their unbounded licentioufnefs 
by the impurity of their actions. Virgil. 
CY'CAS, J'. [from Pliny.] The Todda Pana ; in 
botany, a genus of palms. The generic characters are— 
I. Male. Calyx: fpathe none; fpadix none; ament 
firobile-form, ovate, fquarrofe, imbricated with fcales; 
fcales fpathule-form, fmooth, fleftty, coloured, keeled 
beneath, with a reflected point, .diftant. Corolla: none. 
Stamina: filaments none ; antherae none; pollen lpread 
within the upper furface of the fcales of the ament, 
feflile, very plentiful, very crowded, fomewhat globofe, 
one-celled, burftting longitudinally on one fide. II. Fe¬ 
male, in a diftinCt individual. Calyx: fpathe none; 
fpadix very Ample, comprefled-ancipital, long, lliarpen- 
ed; perianthium none. Corolla: none. Piftillum: 
germs folitary, immerfed beyond the middle into the 
corners of the fpadix, remote, roundifii ; ftyle cylindric, 
very Ihort; ftigma fimple. Pericarpium : drupe oval, 
one-celled. Seed : nut woody, one-celled.— EJfentiaiCha- 
raEler. Male. Ament (trobile-form, with the fcales co¬ 
vered every where beneath with pollen. Female. Spa¬ 
dix fword-form; germ immerfed into the corners of it, 
folitary ; ftyle one ; drupe with a woody nut. 
Species. 1. Cycas circinalis, or broad-leaved cycas: 
fronds pinnate ; leaflets linear, fiat. This plant was at 
firft placed by Linnaeus among the palms, with an obfer¬ 
vation, that the foliation refembled that of the ferns, to 
which tribe he afterwards removed it, obferving that it 
had naked pollen, without any anther. Jacquin howe¬ 
ver, has fhewn that it is a perfect dioecous plant, and has 
in part deferibed and figured the parts of fructification; 
by which it appears after all to be a palm. Native of 
the Eaft Indies, the Friendly Illands, and the New He¬ 
brides, in the South Seas. 
2. Cycas revoluta, or narrow-leaved cycas: fronds 
pinnate; leaflets linear; revolute about the edge. 
Trunk round, branched, a fathom or more in height, the 
thicknefs of the thigh, ferruginous and hirfute from the 
falling of the leaves. The fruit is an ovate, flat, red 
drupe, an inch and half in length. Whether the cycas 
inermis of Loureiro be the fame with the cycas revoluta 
of Thunberg, we dare not determine. According to 
his defeription, the trunk is five feet high, quite Angle or 
undivided, the thicknefs of the human thigh, rugged 
and brown ; fronds five feet long, afeending ; the ftipes 
roundifti, and without any fpines; the leaflets linear- 
lanceolate, fix inches long, fmooth, dufky-green, flattifti, 
oppolite, feflile. Female flower, with fpadixes various, 
linear, reflex, few-flowered, fubterminating, fimple, ter¬ 
minated by a jagged brafte ; drupe an inch and half fin 
diameter, ovate, a little compreffed, fmooth and even, 
rufous; inclofing a woody nut of the fame form, in 
which is a'- Angle kernel; it is never branched, nor mo- 
C Y C 
noecous. It is not ufed for food in China or Cochin* 
china, but it is cultivated there for its beauty. In Tun* 
quin they make a fort of bread called fagu from the 
pith of the trunk. The fruit is eaten by the Japonefe ; but 
the pith of the trunk is moft efteemed for its highly nutri¬ 
tive quality ; they affirm that a foldiercan fublift for a day 
upon a very fmall piece of it, and therefore it is made a 
capital offence to export this tree. Native alfo of China 
and Cochin-china, and introducedabout1758, by Richard 
Warner, efq. of Woodford in Effex, who received a 
plant from captain Hutchinfon. His Ihip being attacked 
by the French, the head of the plant was fliot off, but 
the Item being preferved, produced leveral heads, which 
being taken off, produced as many plants. 
Dampier fays that the fago-trees are called by the na¬ 
tives of Mindanao (one of the Philippine iflands) lib by ~ 
trees-, that they grow wild in great groves of five or fix 
miles long, by the Aides of the rivers. Its body and 
fltape is much like the palmeto-tree, or the cabbage-tree, 
but not fo tall as the latter. The wood is full of white 
pith like that of elder. They cut down the tree, 
fplit it in the middle, and ferape out all the pith : which 
they beat witli a wooden peftle in a great mortar or 
trough, and then put it into a cloth or ftrainer held over 
a trough ; and, pouring water in among it, they ftir it 
about; the water carries all the fubftance of the pith 
through the cloth into the trough, leaving behind a light 
fort of hulk, which they throw away ; that which runs 
into the trough fettles to the bottom like mud ; then 
they draw off the water, and make the fubftance into 
cakes, which being baked proves very good bread. 
The Mindanao people live three or four months of the 
year on this food. The native Indians of Ternnte, 
Tidore, and all the Spice iflands, have plenty of thefe 
trees, and ule them for food. The fago which is tranf- 
ported into other parts of the Eaft Indies, is dried in 
fmall pieces like little feeds or comfits, and commonly 
eaten with milk of almonds by thofe that are troubled 
with the flux. 
Propagation arid Culture. Thefe trees require to be 
plunged in the bark-bed in the ftove, which ftiould be 
kept up full to temperate heat in winter ; but in fummer 
ftiould be much hotter. They ftiould be frequently re- 
frelhed with water during hot weather; but in autumn 
and winter it ftiould be given fparingly. 
CY'CLADES, a name given to certain iflands of the 
iEgean fea, thofe particularly that furround Delos as 
with a circle ; whence the name zi^-Ao?, circulus. They 
were about fifty-three in number, the principal of which 
were Ceos, Naxos, Andros, Paros, Melos, Seriphos, 
Gyarus, Tenedos, See. The Cyclades were reduced 
under the power of Athens by Miltiades ; but during the 
invafion of Greece by the Perlians, they revolted from 
their ancient and natural allies. Pliny. 
CY'CLAMEN, f. Gr. circular, either on 
account of the round form of the leaves, or of the roots.] 
Sow-bread ; in botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, 
order moriogynia, natural order of precise. The gene¬ 
ric characters are—Calyx : perianthium half five-cleft, 
roundifti, permanent; diviiions ovate. Corolla: one- 
petalled ; tube fomewhat globofe, twice as large as the 
calyx, linall, nodding; border bent upwards, five-part¬ 
ed, very large ; diviiions lanceolate ; neck prominent. 
Stamina: filaments five, very fmall, in the tube of the 
corolla; antherae ftraight, ftiarp, in the neck of the co¬ 
rolla, converging. Piftillum : germ roundifti ; ftyle fili¬ 
form, ftraight, longer than the ftamens; ftigma ftiarp. 
Pericarpium : berry globofe, one-celled, gaping five ways 
at the top, covered with a capfular (hell. Seeds : very 
many, fomewhat ovate, cornered; receptaculum ovate, 
free.— EJfential CharaEler. Corolla rotate, reflex, with a 
very Ihort tube, and prominent throat ; berry covered 
with a capfule. 
Species. 1. Cyclamen coum, or round-leaved cyclamen: 
leaves orbicular, cordate, quite entire. Linnteus obferves, 
that 
